(musical tones)

(applause)

- When you hear the term
occupational safety and health,

I'm curious what comes to mind.

Probably OSHA,

compliance,

other unpleasantries
in the workplace.

And that's a very, almost
narrow and limiting view.

What I'm going to
do over the next 10 minutes

is try to convince you that
there is a lot of potential,

untapped potential, if we
practice safety properly.

Every year, the US Bureau
of Labor Statistics

publishes reports on
where fatalities occur,

the causes of fatalities,

and the same with the
nonfatal injury and illnesses.

And we study that here, and
businesses look at this.

The problem is I
think it unfairly

stereotypes certain industries,

or causes us to sort of blanket

and just focus on
certain things.

I started my career as a
compliance officer with OSHA,

that's how I cut
my teeth in safety.

And so what I'm gonna be
sharing with you today

comes from a culmination
of over 20 years

of experience,
studies, research,

and this one figure here from
the report is interesting

'cause it kind of
encapsulates a lot of things.

Now when I was a
compliance officer,

I was doing enforcement work,

but I was hearing and I was
listening to the workers,

listening to management
and I noticed things,

that there is more like
these social aspects

of an organization,
or the relationships,

we'll say relationships.

And that's what seemed
to be more indicative

of a safe workplace
than all the compliance,

and programs, and rules,
and all this stuff.

And, as you'll see
here, smaller companies

have much lower accident
rates than bigger companies.

They don't have the resources,
they probably don't even

have a safety professional
working for them.

Why is that?

Well, I noticed that it was
people trust each other.

They talk to each other.

They knew how to work around
the constraints of work

or had the control or autonomy

to redesign their own work

to mitigate the
hazards that are there.

In 2009, I was lucky
enough to be asked

to be the lead safety volunteer

for the show Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition.

So, up in northern Wisconsin,

I was called on a
Friday afternoon.

They said, "We've
been calling around,

"you were recommended."

Of course, I'm a professor,

so I'm sitting around, right?

Just kidding, no, I wasn't.

But I said, "Sure, I'll help
out, what do I have to do?"

They said, "Well, on Monday,

"we're gonna be knocking
on the family's door,

"and you need to supply
two safety professionals

"on-site 24/7 for that week."

Okay, lucky I have
a lot of friends.

I tapped into my
resources, within 72 hours,

I had a full schedule
of safety professionals

who were gonna
on-site at all times.

Now, what's
interesting about this,

is that we didn't
come in and go,

"Okay, here are the OSHA
standards, follow them."

What we did is I set
up some principles,

those principles being
let's help people.

We're not gonna, you know,
force people to do this,

we're gonna help people.

If somebody doesn't
have head protection,

we're gonna bring it to them.

If somebody needs helps
lifting something,
we're gonna help lift.

But more importantly
is we had to protect

the non-skilled
volunteers on-site.

The people who clamored
to be on a TV show,

they were our biggest hazard.

And so we started a
training program for them,

and then we had
them only go on-site

when they are
mentored or supervised

by one of the experts,

the people who were
construction folk volunteering.

And we were very
successful with this.

And the other thing that I did

is I instituted a journal,

so that each group that
handed off to the next group

saw what the previous group did,

understood the training,
maybe things they found,

and it actually evolved
as it went through.

And you have to do that
with a construction site

because the construction
site evolves.

And so we were very successful,

and we provided this family
with a wonderful new home,

which they gratefully accepted.

What I want to share
with you now is

seven principles, or I call
my philosophy on safety,

and I think it really
will give you insight into

how I practice, how I teach,
and how I research safety.

A very, I don't know
if you'd call it new,

but an innovative look at it.

Safety is an attribute of work,

and what I mean by that is I
picture everything as a system.

So there's elements that are
interacting with each other,

and it's complex.

And if we oversimplify
a complex issue,

we're not gonna solve
it, we're gonna be wrong.

No offense to Occam.

Okay, wow, flat.
(laughter)

But it all started really with
the Industrial Revolution,

Industrial Revolution gave
birth to the work organization.

People working together
for a specific purpose,

but there's a lot of
complexities there.

We had new forms of technology,

and we still have new
forms of technology.

We have new chemicals,
we have new issues,

and how are we allowing
the individuals

who are hired to
do specific tasks?

Do we give them the
tools, the knowledge,

in order to be successful?

That they can ask for
help when they need it,

where they can take time
to go get the right tool,

or to control their
own work environment

so they can mitigate
whatever hazards are there

or avoid the exposure.

And so, if we take
safety out of work,

if we take it out of
the design of work,

unmoor it from that, we're
gonna be unsuccessful.

And it's gonna make
the job not as fun.

And it's gonna make
our relationships,

it's gonna destroy them.

And we're not gonna communicate,

and then all things go
mad, not just safety.

I said bad, not mad,
sorry about that.

I believe all workers
want to do a good job,

at least initially when
they're first hired.

The problem is if
we don't give them

the opportunity to
get some satisfaction,

to feel appreciated
for the work they do,

or if we don't give them
an opportunity to succeed,

we're not gonna achieve that.

And I believe safety is linked

to people being able
to do a good job.

And so, therefore,
if I study work,

I study the job itself,
but not just that,

what's their relationship
with coworkers?

With the relationship
with their supervisor?

How often do they
see top management?

All these things
are very critical

to their ability to understand
their job completely,

to appreciate what they do,

to be proud that they're
getting something done,

and they're doing
it in a safe manner,

because you can get something
done safely or unsafely.

And if safety is removed,

and it's incongruent
to the work rule,

what are workers gonna choose?

What are supervisors
gonna choose?

They're there to
get the work done,

if safety's not part of
that, well, so be it.

All people want to
be treated fairly,

that's very, very consistent.

I know there are
theory out there,

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs,

you've probably heard of that.

B.F. Skinner's ABC
Model, fine, good.

I believe Adams' Equity
Theory explains more

why people change their
attitude and behavior

and do certain things,
than anything else.

You've heard of a fair day's
pay for a fair day's work,

that's the foundation of it.

Back in the '60s, Adams
came up with that.

It's been extended in
the '80s by Greenberg

to organizational justice.

If we perceive
injustice or unfairness,

that greatly affects us

and our relationships
at our workplace.

Which, in turn, affects our
communication in the workplace.

Which, in turn, allows
things to go bad very quickly

if we don't do
something about it.

People do not try to get hurt.

They just, they're
trying to get a job done,

and if we don't consider
all aspects of the job,

which could lead to exposure,

I know you guys are starting
to see the pictures.

(laughter)

It happens.

But they don't
intend to get hurt.

Going back to fairness.

We have this inert desire,

it's called the fundamental
attribution error,

that when we see someone
get hurt, we blame them.

We do that.

But when you're the
one who got hurt,

you can usually identify
external factors that led to it.

That's what I'm talking about,

the design of work,

external factors that are
complex and interacting.

But if we blame someone
and they got hurt

because they're trying
to do a good job,

and safety is not there
and we blame them,

that really affects them.

That affects the entire social
fabric of an organization,

and that's something
I've studied.

If I had more time,
I would definitely
share all that with you,

but, believe me, people
do not want to get hurt.

We need to make them so they
can do their job successfully

and really be excited
about what they're doing,

but do it in a safe
manner as well.

If we assume that all workers
have everything they need

to get their job done
successfully, we're wrong.

We need everybody
to be successful,

if not, then somebody
has to make up for it.

Organizations are
only successful

as the success of
each individual,

that's how I approach safety.

It sounds different,
doesn't it, it is.

I want everybody to be
able to get their job done,

because nothing is static.

Things change day
in and day out.

We have new workers coming in,

we have new
technology coming in.

It's a constant
effort to understand

what may be preventing
someone from being successful,

or affect some relationship
with an organization

because all that affects safety,

it affects productivity,
it affects satisfaction.

I'm highly analytical, I
measure a lot of things,

and by doing so and by looking
at the work system itself,

I can understand safety
from multiple factions.

I'm not just gonna justify
a change in the work

because OSHA might
come in and cite it?

No, that's not a
good justification.

I can link it to productivity,
I can link it to savings.

You know, if someone gets hurt,
that's gonna slow things down.

That's gonna affect
mindset of people.

One example, but this is
throughout my entire life,

when my kids see a
commercial on a new toy,

they're like "Daddy,
we want that."

I'm like, "Here, fill
out this form here,

"about what you think
the quality will be,

"how much you'll play with it,

"and I'll see if I
can cost justify it."

You know you can make
kids like old toys

by repurposing them
as Christmas gifts.

Just saying.
(laughter)

Not Santa, but Christmas gifts.

They don't know.

I'm concerned by a heightened

attention to people
wanting to adopt

what other companies are doing
because they're successful.

I believe it's the
journey we go on,

it's the techniques that
we replicate every day

with a focus on
improving the work,

improving the success
of the individual,

which ultimately creates a
functional safety program.

But too often people
are trying to buy it,

the magic pill,
the silver bullet.

I'm saying right here and now
we can't buy a safety program.

We can't say, "Oh, there's
a safe organization,"

and mimic what they do
because we will fail.

We have to go through a
journey in order to get there.

So, almost ending on time,

what I want to share
with all of you,

we are new to the
business school.

We are the envy of a lot
of safety degree programs

around the US, there is
enormous potential here.

I've got several student groups

out serving companies right now,

building their safety
program from the roots up.

We've got interns who,
we've been very lucky,

with their number of offers.

We have interns going out

before they're doing
their capstone.

This summer I've got a
lot of non-safety students

taking my intro safety course.

So, I really want UW Whitewater

to be the beacon of
southern Wisconsin

for class projects,

for practical
research, for interns,

and I see more and more
how safety can actually

be improving or providing
management students,

human resource
students, by the way,

there's a lot of potential
for human resource students

who have a safety
background, I'm telling ya.

I get people contact me with
job offers all the time,

I just don't know anybody yet.

But the idea is,

we should be the next generation

that is going to really
serve the safety field,

because right now we
can do a lot better,

and I think here at Whitewater,

we can offer that
to our community.

(applause)

(upbeat music)